Why Starting a Business With Your Spouse Can Be Dangerous

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Do you value the money you make and the things you can buy with that money more than the relationships you have with the people around you? Or maybe you’ve never thought about it before?

You see, sometimes we get so caught up in day-to-day living that we forget what’s really important in life. We’re constantly told to seek fame and fortune. To make as much money as possible. To be strong and independent. But with that goal of profitability comes certain sacrifices. You must sacrifice time, energy and resources that would otherwise be devoted to things like friends, families and partners.

The decision you need to make, then, is what’s more important to you: money or relationships?

Let me give you an example

You come up with a great new business idea. No one else has ever done anything like this before. You and your partner decide it’s worth investing some serious effort into this project. You work hard, plan for hour and hours and finally come up with a sound business plan you think will work. You even deal with some of the legal stuff like names and trademarks. You grab a Web domain name and figure out how to integrate your company and products with the online marketplace.

You have everything ready to go. All you need to do now is get a business loan from the bank (or bootstrap the business yourself) and get started.

Before you actually get going, however, you decide to go to a pair of trusted advisors for some advice. The couple you seek out has been in a similar business for many years—decades, in fact. They go over your financial plans, agree that the business looks like it will be profitable and even sign a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement so there’s no chance of compromising your idea.

Everything looks great until one of them brings up an important point, something you might have overlooked.

A new business is more than just finances and legal paperwork, they warn. A business is like a child that never grows up and never sleeps. You have to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You need to be there when your customers or clients need you.

If your business relies on other companies to get the word out, or if you sell your product through another company, they will expect even more from you. After all, they don’t want to lose customers because of your product.

That means that you will have no vacation time, no weekends and no time for you and your partner to just be you, this experienced business couple tells you.

You look over at your partner in surprise. You had never thought about it like that before. But your advisors go on. Having a business together means you have to cooperate all the time. If something goes wrong, you will both be upset, with no one to comfort you. Marriages and even friendships are torn apart by the stress that running a business puts on people. It’s an entirely different dynamic than simply loving each other.

Now you have to decide.

You can move forward with the business. It will be profitable; you feel confident of that. The physical issues can be overcome and the technical ones can be resolved.

The question is: what are you willing to sacrifice? What do you value more: the relationship you have with your partner, or the money you could make?

That is a question only you can answer. Just remember that when you decide to start your own business or even devote yourself wholly to your career, you must sacrifice something. Make sure you chose the right something.

Paul Taylor and his wife Julie both spend quite a bit of time coming up with ideas, blogging and researching all things related to childcare. They take care of all the necessary information related to babysittingjobs.com/.

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